The Way We Were
by PoppyPotter
Summary: We thought we were ready, we thought it would be manageable, though of course not easy. We were naive. A war does not end just because you are young and fighting for it to end, it does not end without deaths and loss, without going to more funerals then you ever wanted to. A multi-chapter story on the Marauders and Lily's experiences in the Order from Lily's pov.
1. Chapter 1

**The way we were**

**Prologue**

Time flies by. Everyone says that at one point. This week went so fast, this month, this year and then before they know it not one but seven years have gone by. At least that's what happened to me. When I started Hogwarts, the end of my first, let alone my seventh year, seemed far, far away. Yet it sped by, time raced by, and with it the world moved on. It changed; we were in the era of flower power, the Beatles, and then in the magical world an era of war. My first year of Hogwarts marked the first year of that war; the tensions, the clashing of beliefs of who was superior had been raging for decades but that year words were put into action. It marked the beginning of a dark decline. Back then of course the murders were further apart, the attacks on muggles less pronounced; people, at least those who lived in the Wizarding world (unlike me) could sense a change. And yet the worst was yet to come.

My generation grew up in this war, we watched as the word mudblood became more commonly used, we watched friends get pulled out of class at news of death, we watched others leave for their safety and every year we listened to the sorting hats warnings grow all the more dire. He or rather it knew, sensed that the war we were facing would destroy our lives; it knew how friendships could fall apart, how friend could turn on friend... It gave us warning after warning. Stay together. Fight together. Do the right thing. We never heeded any of them. In the end you could say it was our fault then for not listening, for thinking we knew best, we didn't, we don't ... We were just children stuck in the middle of a war, we still are only now we've managed to fool ourselves in to believing we're warriors of war; we attend meetings, we plan, we fight- we forget our age...

**A/N: This is the prologue to a story I've been planning for a while. It's going to cover the Marauders and Lily's experiences in the Order, from Lily's point of view. Updates will probably not be regular (sorry!) but I hope you can still enjoy this story. Please review!**


	2. The first rule

**The first rule**

The first meeting was the worse. We, the six of us stood there; James, Sirius, Peter, Remus, Benjy and I. Six new recruits, six people who were just out of school and wanted to make a difference, who believed we could. This was the day we had been waiting for for years, the day we thought of when we were stuck in classrooms, when we heard of deaths, of attacks. We were excited and ready, _so_ ready to prove we could fight, we could make a difference, we could end this damn thing. We thought we knew what we were getting ourselves into.

We didn't.

In front of us they sat, I think we all expected a better welcome, we expected smiles and open arms, not a fanfare but happiness or at least gratitude that they had new people to fight beside. New allies. Instead, they stared at us, the new recruits, they shook their heads and though they didn't say it in so many words we were not stupid, we could read in their eyes, in their words and actions. To them we were kids. Stupid, naïve kids, who had not a clue what they were getting into. (They were right about that). They thought we would become a liability, how could we a bunch of teenagers barely out of school fight?

Moody questioned us, question after question, his eyes lingering on Sirius (a Black) until finally having had enough James opened his mouth. He had never had been one to watch his friends treated with suspicion.

_"Will you stop that?"_

The table fell silent. Emmeline Vance pursued her lips, Marlene McKinnon and the Prewetts exchanged glances, Dorcas Meadows rolled her eyes. James however had eyes only for Moody.

"_Stop what,_ boy?" His lips curled into a challenging smile; if it had been anyone else they would have shrank back from the intimidating Alastor Moody, but James had never been, nor would he ever be one to shy away when he's friends were being insulted.

James glared, "looking at Sirius as though he's going to bloody kill you"

"You can never be too careful boy, _he" _he cast a suspicious eye in the direction of Sirius; "grew up in a house with dark things...he's a _Black_"

Besides me I felt James tense. "And?" the anger was barely constrained in his voice.

"And, he grew up in a house filled with Merlins knows what, he's a Black Potter, and nothing can change that. He grew up hand in hand with Bellatrix Black, you know who that is, don't you?" It was Marlene McKinnon, a witch with immaculately straight blond hair and perfect posture.

"Bellatrix is nothing to me!" Sirius had practically growled but Marlene had merely rolled her eyes. It wasn't hard to grasp the situation, she did not trust Sirius and perhaps, because of our trust in him, viewed us as either naïve or hoodwinked.

"Nobody can grow up in a house like that and still turn out a half a decent human being" she had snarled and that had set it off. Sirius had growled and pulled out a wand, Remus had tried his best to restrain him, Peter shifted from foot to foot nervously but it was James, I think, who made the greatest impression.

"If" he began his eyes narrowing, " you believe that a person's birth, a person's name or parents make them who they are then you are no better than the death eaters you claim to fight. I trust Sirius with my life and…"

Moody raised an eyebrow; "with your life eh? Best not trust anybody that much Potter, or any of you in fact."

He turned around, glaring at everyone in the room in turn; "We live in dark times, and in times like this there's no time for trust. I don't care who it is, friends, neighbours; you don't trust anybody, not even anybody in this room. You get that?"

_Trust no one. _

That was one of Moodys first rules for us.

But despite his warnings, his tales of brother turning on brother, I trusted the Marauders with all I had, in the same way I knew they trusted each other. We would never question each others' motives. Not yet at least. It would take years and more deaths then we could even remember, more close calls that we would like to have experienced and more fear than we could ever have imagined before our trust began to fade.

**Stupidly short, I know but the next chapter will be longer :D Please review!**


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